GQ Preview: Aqua Dominatrix

What happens when a guitarist buys himself some analog synths? Rage on the dance-floor, that's what

Akshay Rajpurohit is best known as that “guy in the beard” who wields the seven-string guitar with metal bands Scribe and Pangea. But scratch the surface and you’ll find a hardware geek who trips out on synth-pop and disco, quite the un-metal thing to do. With Aqua Dominatrix, Akshay plans to carve a space among electronic music producers.

With Scribe, we’ve heard the 90’s Bollywood-loving/riff-rage endorsing Akshay. What side of your personality does Aqua Dominatrix tap into?

It’s the same. The late Seventies and early Eighties had these frontier-bending bands like Depeche Mode, Moroder and Imagination whose dance music I really connected with. Synthesizers and drum machines are where my heart lies. It was just a matter of buying some and starting to make music.

What were the apprehensions that you initially faced?

I’ve been a guitarist and composer for twelve years but I’d never really sequenced or arranged without a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation for recording, editing and producing audio files) before. There are a million things we take for granted. Try working on your computer without using a mouse for a few hours, that’s exactly what sequencing hardware feels like. My initial fear was “How the fuck am I going to play this LIVE?” Don’t get me wrong, the entire album is recorded live, but I have the luxury of not having people around when I do so. Since just the basic pattern is pre-sequenced, chances of screw-ups are too high on stage. But a lot of time has passed since then and I feel more like a Complan boy now. Let’s go!

What have the reactions been so far?

I didn’t think so many people would take interest in a metal guitarist playing pop. There are guys who even paid for the first two releases on my Bandcamp page, which was surprising.

Which is your favourite song on the record?

I would say ‘Scarred one’. It was a real bitch to sequence over as I had played the underlying pad melody on some weird-ass time signature and then just spent sleepless nights arranging over it. That track really helped me understand what I could do and couldn’t do with my gear.

What’s stopping you from playing a live Aqua Dominatrix set?

Airline security! You should see their faces when they spot a drum machine. The real problem was that I couldn’t carry all my gear all the time, so I had to prepare different sets using different equipment.

What inspires your music?

Old BBC shows along with the likes of Brain Eno and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. A lot of the sounds on the album were inspired by old cartoons like Samurai Jack and the Centurions and videogames like Rayman and Outrun. I really wanted this album to be sexy. I hate the fact that today, sexy means some sleazy chick showing off her galactic ass on a magazine cover. No, I’m sorry, that’s just vulgar.